The Whole Story

I'll see if I can condense this.

 On Tuesday morning our daycare provider went to check on Calla who was sleeping in the swing.  She found her colorless and not breathing.  She put her hand on her chest and jiggled a little but got no response.  She applied firm stimulation and Calla took a deep breath in and then continued sleeping.  She then called me completely distraught.  I called DH to have him meet me at her house and we took her straight to the pedi's office.  I admit at first I wasn't too concerned.  I've seen her stop breathing for a few seconds and that's normal.  However, when I showed up to pick her up and saw how upset my daycare provider was, I knew it was more serious.

 The pediatrician looked her over and discussed the different tests they could run to check her out.  By that time Calla was her normal, happy self.  Completely unaware of the trouble she caused.  The pedi decided the fastest way to get her assessed would be to admit her over night at the children's hospital.  So DH and I drove directly over there.

 The doctors at the hospital did a full examination and called my daycare provider to get her account of the incident.  They did an EKG, which she HATED, and put her on monitors for the rest of the day/night.  They didn't seem too concerned, especially because she looked so healthy, so that was a relief.   

 That first night was hard.  We had a 14 month old roommate so I wasn't able to sleep much.  Around 1:00 am, during a time I was actually sleeping, I was woken by the sound of Calla's alarms.  I looked at the machine and it was registering her respiration rate at a 0.  She wasn't breathing.  I immediately reached over and shook her and her respiration rate shot back up.  The nurse came in shortly after to assess her.  After that I wasn't able to sleep at all.  That incident won her a second night in the hospital.

 Unfortunately I reacted incorrectly to the apnea episode.  The doctors weren't too pleased.  Apparently I was supposed to turn on the light and the look her over and verify she wasn't breathing and check her color.  I also should have waited for the nurse to come in and assess.  Um, yeah, when a machine tells me my baby isn't breathing I don't want to wait.  But, because I didn't wait and couldn't tell them I saw for sure she was blue and not breathing, they weren't positive it was a true apnea episode or just a monitor malfunction.  In the two days we were there and all the positions I was holding her in she never once had a respiration monitor malfunction.  I doubt it randomly occurred while she was laying there sleeping.  

They decided to have us spend a second night and do a pneumogram.  That consisted of hooking her up to a bajillion monitors, included one directly under her nose, to record her breathing, heartrate, pulse ox, etc. for 14 hours.  She really HATED that.  It was not easy to get her in and out of bed to breast feed her with all those wires hanging off her.  Luckily our roommate had gone home so we were alone that second night and able to sleep.  She did not set off any alarms that night.

 The results of the pneumogram were normal.  The doctor said it showed she had periodic breathing, where she stops breathing for a few seconds and then resumes, but that is normal.  They felt the two apnea incidents were isolated.  We were very happy to hear that she was okay, but I admit I was disappointed they weren't going to send us home with a breathing monitor.  On the way home from the hospital we stopped and bought the angel care monitor for her crib.  I've also ordered the respisense monitor for when she's not in the crib.  

So now we just wait to see if it happens again.  I know how to react to it now and what information the doctor's are looking for.  If it happens again we're going straight back to the e.r. and demanding a home monitor.  I have to say that spending two days in the hospital was eye opening.  There were a lot of very sick kids there and I was grateful that Calla seemed to be the healthiest.  It could have definitely been a lot worse.